City Hopping: Berlin

13th-16th July

The next stop on mine and Dave's European Adventure was Berlin. There's so much history here from the First and Second World Wars and I've always wanted to see the Berlin Wall which came down the year I was born.

Soviet Wall Memorial

Brandenburg Gate

With our tourist hats on we head towards the instantly recognisable Brandenburg Gate. Along the way we had a quick look at the Soviet War Memorial. It was built in the British part of the city in 1945 but apparently we approved of it.

The gate

Reunion

At the Brandenburg gate we met up with my long time friend Daimi. I say long time, I'd only known her 6 months at this point but this was the third time we'd met and in three different countries. And there would be a fourth! She had been home for a few months and had got itchy feet so decided to do a bit of city hopping herself. She would be joining me for my birthday celebrations.

Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe

After a brief catch up we continued our sightseeing tour of Berlin. We walked to the memorial of the murdered Jews of Europe which is absolutely not a playground.

Boo

The Wall

The next place we went had a large section of the wall. The actual Berlin Wall! It was fascinating to see it in person. Even though it is just a wall it symbolises so much. Along the wall there was the a timeline starting with Hitler and the Nazi's rise to power and ending with David Hasselhoff. Sorry, I mean ending with the fall of the Berlin Wall

Learning

Checkpoint Charlie

Around the corner was Checkpoint Charlie which seems to be famous but I'm not sure what for. It just looks like a cheesy photo opportunity for Americans now.

Being all serious

We visited a couple of other spots along the wall. The first was alongside a park and the second was covered in art.

The wall of art

Libya

One section had a large image of the damage in Libya with the war that's going on there. It's a poignant reminder that although Europe is at peace, not everywhere is.

Burger under a bridge

Daimi recommended this burger joint which didn't look anything special. Its just a little hut underneath a bridge but it had a huge queue so it seemed to be worth the wait. It was.

Sunset over Berlin

Random

The next morning we went to the Anne Frank museum which was rubbish. It was just a room with a few extracts from her diary and we paid 5 euros each for the privilege. If anyone is thinking about going to this then don't bother. Maybe go for the actual house in Amsterdam but this was a waste of money. The only interesting thing was the art on the street outside.

More random

Berlin Cathedral Church

We continued our sightseeing around Berlin down by the river where there are a few museums and a cathedral before heading over to the roof of the Reichstag Building

Museum

Big Ass church

Reichstag Building

There was a good view from the top of the rest of Berlin. There was a bit of a spiel about the history of the building on the viewing platform but I can't remember it.

Berlin

The viewing platform

We weren't used to having two days to do the sightseeing so we were getting a little bored by this point. Luckily we had the perfect excuses, it was my birthday! Woop Woop!

Bowling!

We met up with Daimi outside a bowling alley for a couple of hours of fun. I like to think I'm alright at bowling but Daimi kicked my ass. Dave was useless but even he managed to beat me in the second game. The shame!

Busy

Dancing crazy

The day got progressively weirder from there. When left the bowling alley there was a dance troop in the square throwing some shapes. If I'd had a couple more drinks I would have got involved but I resisted. They turned out to be a group of American Christians spreading the love etc. A guy came over to us and chatted for a while. Dave and Daimi were happy to chat to him but I just stood there. Then he asked us if we'd pray with him. I resisted the temptation to role my eyes as he asked me to close me eyes and hold hands. He said something along the lines of show these people a sign that you are there and watch over them.

Ultimate Thailand buddies

What followed was the best night of the year! We went home to get ready and then met up with Daimi at her hostel to start a pub crawl. It wasn't the best pub crawl. We only went to two bars and the organisers lost us between the first and second!

Made some friends

The night picked up when we went to Matrix which is one of the big clubs in Berlin. It had lots of rooms and it was very busy. I didn't check out all the rooms as the first one we were in was so good! It had been so long since I had a good night out. So many places now, will just play house music or a remix of the songs you know. I prefer for a DJ just hit play on original songs without messing with it and that's what I got. Banger after Banger! It was brilliant.

One rammed room

Then 'La Bomba' came on. This song is too random to be coincidence! I realise I've not had many nights out in Europe but it just seemed so unlikely. It holds so much sentimental meaning for me reminding me of family holidays. I thought you'd only ever hear it in the kids section of a cheesy entrainment night at one of those all inclusive hotels but here it was in a major nightclub in Berlin on my birthday. I lost my shit! If there was any kind of sign.... it made me think.

Epic night

At 4am when my t-shirt was soaked through, and I realised I would have to pay for water, we decided to call it a night. Dave and Daimi got a kebab but I held out for a Maccas on the way home. The sun was well and truly up by the time we got in. We only got a few hours sleep before we had to get up to move on from Berlin.

We were travelling on to a new city in a new country for another reunion and another night out.